Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of the country’s leading writers on race, has sold the landmarked Brooklyn brownstone he owned briefly for $2.1 million, according to city property records.
Coates bought the stunning five-bedroom home at 207 Lincoln Road — “on the most coveted block of Prospect Lefferts Gardens,” notes the property’s listing— in April 2016 for $2.1 million through an LLC, Ellen and William Craft Excursions. (The name comes from two runaway slaves whose real-life escape to freedom, as chronicled in their 1860 book, “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom,” reads better than fiction. Ellen escaped to freedom by posing as a white male slaveowner traveling with her “slave,” who was really her husband, William.)
But after The Post and other publications reported Coates as the buyer, using NYC’s publicly available real estate records, he published an Atlantic piece stating that his family would not be safe in their new home, on a tony block filled with multimillion-dollar properties. “You can’t really be a black writer in this country, take certain positions and not think about your personal safety,” he wrote.
Coates tried to flip the brownstone for $2.39 million — nearly $300,000 more than he paid— but hooked no buyers at that price. The price then dropped twice, last asking $2.24 million before it entered contract.
The stunning home comes with original, restored details, including ceiling moldings, ornate banisters, four decorative mantles, five sets of pocket doors, Pier mirrors and inlaid hardwood floors, per the listing. The brownstone also features a living room and study on the parlor floor, a formal dining room, eat-in chef’s kitchen with floor-to-ceiling windowed doors, a garden and a deck. Other charming original details include a claw-foot tub in the master bathroom.
The listing brokers were Douglas Elliman’s Pablo Cuevas, Eduardo Leanez and Eugenio Stangher.